Kit, Surgical

Abstract

This surgical kit, ca. 1880, includes two Petit's tourniquets, two trephines (used for boring holes into bone, particularly the skull), a large amputation saw, two long amputating knives, a bone saw, two Hey's skull saws, and a tenaculum (a hook-like instrument for seizing and holding parts) housed in a blue velvet-lined mahogany case with brass hardware. The tools are made of stainless steel with hard rubber handles and were manufactured by Jacob H. Gemrig, a German who emigrated to Philadelphia in the 1830s and established one of the country's first medical instrument-making companies in 1844. The tools were owned and used by Lewis D. Coy, M.D. (1848-1921) who was born in Green Village, Mahoning County. He served in the 6th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War. After the war, Coy studied medicine with a local doctor, then at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati graduating in 1876. He began practicing medicine in his hometown, but in 1879 moved to Canfield, a suburb of Youngstown, and served as physician at the Mahoning County Infirmary for thirty years.